1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a deboning apparatus for separating meat and bone of a fowl dark meat from each other.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,402,112 discloses an apparatus for separating meat and bone of a fowl dark meat from each other. This apparatus has a ring-shaped nozzle having a plurality of jetting nozzle ports which are arranged on a circle so as to jet high-pressure water towards a point on the axis. In operation, a dark meat is inserted into the circle of the ring-shaped nozzle such that the bone extends in the direction of the axis, so that high-pressure water is jetted to the periphery of the bone of the boned dark meat, thereby separating the bone from the meat. This apparatus has a single pressing member of a triangular cross-section disposed above a conveyor device for conveying the boned dark meat to the ring-shaped nozzle and extending substantially over the entire length of the conveyor device. In operation, the pressing member cooperates with the conveyor device to clamp the boned dark meat therebetween so as to ensure that the boned dark meats moves into the circle of the ring-shaped nozzle at a predetermined positional relationship to the ring-shaped nozzle.
The apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,402,112, however, suffers from the following problem. Namely, when a " "-shaped boned dark meat composed of upper and lower leg portions, is to be processed, the upper and lower legs are twisted relative to each other when the boned dark meat is straightened in the space between the pressing member and the conveyor device. This makes it impossible to introduce the boned dark meat into the circle of the ring-shaped nozzle at a predetermined positional relationship to each other, or causes jamming of the above-mentioned space by the boned dark meat. Thus, the above-mentioned apparatus could not treat " "-shaped boned dark meat.